It was especially to the liking of Austen Becerra who would win the last two races of the night. In the twenty-five lap Late Model feature, Austen would start from fourth and he would chase the front row of Dustin Smith and Evan Miller early on. Smith behind the wheel of the #53 formerly driven by Leroy Brenner would lead the first four laps before Miller drover under him exiting turn four.
The first caution of the event would come just past the mid-race mark when Darin Weisinger Jr. had his car go up in smoke and on the restart Becerra would get to second and start stalking the leader. The preferred line was around the cushion that had pushed nearly all of the way out to the rails on both ends and when Austen tried to stick the bottom, Miller's momentum off the top would allow him to retain the lead.
As the lead duo came to score lap twenty, Miller bobbled just a bit in turn four and with a big run down the front stretch Becerra would then throw the slider in turns one and two. As Evan tried to cross him over, contact between the two almost made them both wreck, but both drivers made the save and Becerra would be the new leader as lap twenty-one was scored. Shortly after that though the caution would fly for some debris from that contact and after some initial confusion when the scoreboard clicked back up to five to go, which would have meant Miller would be back out front, that was corrected to four to go with Becerra bringing the field back to green.
Miller would try to hug the bottom in one and two on the restart, but there was not enough there to stay with the new leader and after four more laps it would be Becerra taking the win over Miller with Jackson Frankel coming from seventh to third. Travis Denning would put Sport Mod ace Logan Anderson behind the wheel of his #56D tonight and Logan was quite impressive in his Late Model debut coming from eleventh to finish fourth while Denny Woodworth took fifth after starting from ninth.
After a quick interview in victory lane, Becerra would strap into his Modified and after drawing the front row for the start, this one was pretty much decided from there. The current All Iowa Points leader who is on his way to his second title in the past three years, Austen was G-O-N-E gone at the drop of the green building up nearly a two-thirds of a lap lead before a caution waved with just two laps remaining.
That caution was for Mike Van Genderen who had been locked in a fierce battle for third with Robbie Reed before his right front tire blew and even though his huge lead had been erased there would be no challenge over the final two laps as Becerra returned to victory lane. Robbie Reed would slip by Kurt Kile after the restart to finish second, Dakota Simmons finished fourth while Jesse Belez filled out the top five.
The Hobby Stock feature would start out the night with Dustin Griffiths topping a short seven car field to maintain his perfect season here at Lee County in the division. Shane Richardson, James Pilkington, Harley Hill and Aaron Martin would make up the top five.
Fifteen laps would be the distance for the Sport Mods with Cody Agee pacing a talented field early and through a pair of restarts. On lap six Dylan Van Wyk would go storming by bringing Logan Anderson and Parker Smith with him as Agee dropped from first to fourth in one circuit. Van Wyk then drove away in an impressive fashion to win going away over Anderson and Smith. Brandon Lennox would pick up the fourth spot while Agee held on to fifth at the checkers.
Derrick Agee would get to the front as the Stock Cars took the green, but when the caution waved before a lap was scored, the field was reset and on the next try it would be Todd Reitzler taking the point. Agee would hound him throughout, but even with a pair of late restarts it would be Reitzler holding on to take the win over Agee. Johnny Spaw was not far behind in third, Abe Huls finished fourth and Jason See advanced from tenth to finish fifth.
Tonight's Sport Compact field certainly didn't look like a beginner's/budget class as you had some of the fastest four cylinder drivers in the Midwest on hand. As the first of fifteen laps were scored, Harrison Horn would get crossed up on the front stretch and after he went nose first into the outside wall his car would roll over once to bring out the red flag. The young Indiana driver who has Iowa family ties would be unscathed and once back to green it would be Jaden DeLonjay setting the quick pace. St. Louis area driver Joey Laws, who had won a heat race earlier in the night, was on the charge from tenth but when things got tight on the back stretch in a three car battle for fourth, contact would send both Laws and Kimberly Abbott for a spin nearing the entrance to turn three on lap five.
Once back to green DeLonjay would be in control while the battle for second would entertain the crowd going three-wide on a couple of occasions and after Jaden took the win it would be Brandon Reu prevailing for second over Travis DeMint. Reu has started the race from ninth. Jack Pflum who had made the trip in from Cincinnati, Ohio, would finish in fourth just ahead of Barry Taft.
It was good to be back at Donnellson, one of my favorite places to watch some racing, for just the second time this season and I look forward to being right back at the Lee County Speedway in three weeks, on Saturday October 26th for the annual running of Shiverfest. This will be the 25th straight year that this event has been on the schedule and it is one event that the drivers and fans do not want to miss!
Next up for me though will be a trip up to Independence this Friday night October 11th for the opener of the Fall Madness weekend. Hope to see you there!
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